Developing Juggling Skills

Development of juggling skill in training provides four important benefits that money can't buy, these being

touch

balance

agility

soccer specific fitness

Touch

top level players feel the ball through the shoe, and know at every moment what part of the ball and what parts of the foot are in contact. The player learns to project, mentally, down to the surface touching the ball, foot, thigh, chest, or head, and learns to feel where the ball will go next based on the last touch. For example, it's easy for you to toss a basketball back and forth between your right and left hands, even with your eyes closed. Your mind is in your fingertips.
Why shouldn't practice make it easy for a player to "toss" a soccer ball between feet ?

You must encourage juggling in order to develop
touch, because touch translates into better results in matches. With good touch, players
will weight their passes more accurately, have an easier time beating opponents with
attacking moves, and be more successful at holding the ball against pressure, all because
of improved touch gained by juggling.

Balance

When you juggle, touch on the ball is
half the battle, the other is in controlling your body. Being able to make rapid, quick,
micro adjustments with all the large and small muscles is a requirement for successful
juggling, and players with better balance are the ones who can move to their right but
keep their balance to shoot the ball to the left, just inside the post. (There's no
kidding about the value of balance. I have a player this year who trains 4-5 hours a day
as a competitive figure skater, and she's finished in the top ten nationally the last two
years. She has incredible balance and agility, and in this year's state cup final, she
took on two defenders and beat each with a quick lateral move to the right, then finished
with a goal to the left post. The keeper had no
chance to go back the other way.)

Agility

Balance's natural partner, like balance
in motion. The ability to change directions quickly. As juggling increases balance, it
does improve agility somewhat, especially for those players who work in group juggling
exercises where movement and control mix together. Like this one:

Groups of two, juggle four touches, loft a pass
half height (chest high) to partner and move to new location 6 feet away and prepare to
get ball back. Partner does likewise.

Soccer Specific Fitness

Sure your players can run
a long way in the Cooper test, but do they have the leg development, balance, abdominal
and lower back development to check back to the ball, kill a hard pass, turn and make an
attacking move to goal, and repeat this 50 times a match ? After they do this 20 times, do
they still have both the fitness and the touch to be successful ? Juggling is fairly
aerobic, especially if you do it in a group with movement, and helps accomplish
development of those little muscles that wear out quickly in matches if not conditioned,
like hip flexors and lower back muscles. Kids with underdeveloped hip flexors have
absolutely no speed at all late in a game.

Improving Juggling Skills

A daily home program is the basis for success.
There's no one best program, and variety helps make it fun. One example:

With a Partner

4 or 5 touches, loft pass to partner at 6 feet, do a
push-up (press up in UK)

With Groups of 3 to 5

Keep it up with heads

Keep it up, all surfaces

4 or 5 touches, loft pass, sprint lap around group,
return to position

Line of players face 1 solo player. Player at front
of line starts underhanded serve to the head of solo player facing line, sprints to become
new solo player. First solo player heads back to front of line, sprints to end of line.
Keep it up with heads continues.

Coaching Points

For all exercises, don't count a touch if control is
lost before a second touch is accomplished. It can't be 1, drop, 2, drop. It has to be 1,
2, 3, 4, drop, 5, 6, 7...

Ask players to read the ball through their boot, and
to know, with every touch, which toe touched the ball and what part of the ball it
touched, and how hard.

Players will have more success in a relaxed
attention posture with slightly bent knees, head up, arms at a comfortable distance to
provide balance.

To get in more touches in time available, ask
players to recognize when they are just about to lose control of the ball, and to let the
ball drop beside them, instead of getting in just that one extra touch that knocks the
ball away 5 yards. In the time it takes for them to walk 5 yards, another player can get
10 or 20 more touches accomplished.

With groups, keep the numbers small so everyone gets
lots of touches.

Keep records, have competitions, have tests, and
give small awards to recognize accomplishment.

Fun Anecdote

There is a soccer book that describes the author's visit to a NY Cosmos game in the 70's.
The author wrote that Carlos Alberto stood in the penalty area, and Franz
Beckenbauer stood in the center circle (restraining arcs for purists). Beckenbauer juggled
the ball for 10 or 20 touches, and then made a 40 yard lofted pass to Alberto, who took
the ball out of the air and began juggling it at the penalty spot. After a while, he
returned it to Beckenbauer, who continued as before. This went on for a long time, showing
great skill in an amazing display. If only all players could do this.